Duk Jo Jeong of Korea, first engineer of the Motor Vessel Cygnus, pleaded guilty to making a false statement to the U.S. Coast Guard concerning the ship's illegal discharge of oily waste into the Pacific Ocean.
The defendant, who pleaded in U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon in Portland, already had spent six months under house arrest awaiting trial.
He was immediately sentenced to two years probation and will be deported from the United States.
The Cygnus, which brings automobiles to the United States, is owned by Feng Lee Maritime Corp. of Panama City and is operated by Fujitrans Corp. of Japan.
The case was investigated by EPA's Criminal Investigation Division, the U.S. Coast Guard, the FBI and the Washington State Department of Ecology. It was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's office in Portland and the Environmental Crimes Section of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.
Source: EPA
